So its Friday, and it’s been a bit of a strange week, we’ll start back with last Sunday.
I had a ‘quiet’ night on Sat, and by that I mean I did nothing, literally nothing. After driving back from Dan’s wedding I had fairly standard chow mein from ruby house, and got an early night. This mean I went for my first Sunday run, and first morning run of 2011, and more importantly, my first sun/morning run of many in the build up to April 22nd 2012.
I think I only ran, let me check, yes, I ran 3 miles not that far, but quite quick, 24 minutes, it was a good start to morning and weekend running. It turned out to be an eventful Sunday too, which included coffee, roast, sitting outside to eat for possibly the last time this year and which ended up with me driving to Talbot Green for a nice early start at Spar on Monday morning.
Monday evening, I managed to hit the gym at the hotel, and a 3mile row in just under 24mins followed by a 3mile run on the treadmill in a pityful 30mins which nearly destroyed me wasn’t great. Not sure if it was the fact I ran after doing the rowing, which haven’t done in about a year since ‘quitting’ the gym. It could be that I’m used to running on roads/parks and concentration on my pace listening back on my iPhone rather than a screen in front of me, and looking at a Top 10 Katy Perry video’s on the TV in front of me was to blame. I can’t decided. All I know is that it has cemented my despise of treadmills and that road/park running is much more fun, interesting and rewarding. I’ll have to get myself some more cold weather gear for the winter to keep it up, but I’d much rather that than a boring treadmill and a 40 odd quid a month gym membership. Ouch.
Tuesday was a late one, leaving South Wales and not getting back till gone 11pm which was a major ballache.
Wednesday, another run and a bit of a longer one, again it was quite quick and I was rather happy. 4 miles in 33 minutes. Excellent work. It’s faster than my target of hitting 7 miles an hour and with fatigue hopefully making the marathon in around 4hours.
Thursday, yesterday as I write this, and another short-ish run, 3.3miles in 28mins, which I guess is around the right pace. Felt a bit tight at the start, and going from a hot house with full heating to a cold outdoors gave me a headache for the whole run. I’d eaten well and thought that it would give me enough energy to get round a bit faster, but I think i probably lost time on a couple of traffic lights and people getting off busses, so am not beating myself up about it too much. I didn’t really stretch properly before or do any sit ups as the house was too warm. Seems from other runs that sit ups and stretching have really helped to get me pumped before I set off and get a good pace from the offset.
So, Friday, think I can get a run in this evening before a few beers and have a rest tomorrow, no drinking Sat night and then plan on getting a 6-7 miler in on sunday in the daylight after a good hearty breakfast to set myself up for the next week and show myself that i can do it.
Also, I am finding that RunKeeper is not especially accurate and am planning my routes on google maps before hand. knowing where I’m going and setting targets for distance and time have really helped on route rather than deciding whilst I’m out. I guess that target setting is going to factor a lot in other runs. On Sun I may take the overground out somewhere, and then run home rather than just do a round trip route, which could make for a better and more enjoyable run. We’ll see!
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